Do you have any favourite cosplay?
Or do you cosplay?

For me... I am a real cosplay-otaku
Can't help it, but I usually make 7-11 costumes in a year...
And I can't stop planning ^^'

I cosplay occasionally but never of Anime characters. For example, I cosplayed as Gandalf when the Return of the King movie came out. I cosplay on a regular basis because I regularly participate in as many LARPs as I can. I don't really have a problem with it as long as you're not like 400 pounds and dressing up as an anorexic 90 pound anime character.

Wow! That's a lot of cosplay! What have been your most recent creations?

I cosplay some, though I feel awkward not cosplaying someone who's on the heavier side, like I am. Which is why for the spring convention rounds, the two costumes I'm doing are Rock Bison (the power suit, not Antonio Lopez in casual attire) and Viktor from Suikoden. ^^

I do not know what to say. If cosplay female characters only. And the appearance of a character should be similar to the anime version. I like to see sometimes photos. In general indifferent attitude to cosplay. If you do not know anime character, not content to watch.

I wouldn't do it myself. I don't like attention, plus it's pretty pathetic when fat people cosplay as anime characters. But I like pictures of girls who look really good in costune.

I get embarrassed for the people who do.

I don't like cosplaying just like I don't like fan art, fan stories and (most) song covers. Most cosplayers and people who make fan art, fan literature and song covers tend to have good intentions, but their lack of originality is shameful and they're essentially plagiarizing. I'd rather see people in original costumes than in costumes based on paper-thin anime and videogame characters.

I personally don't see how anyone could feel connected enough to, say, Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII to want to dress up like him. Final Fantasy VII is great and Cloud is likable and one of the least paper-thin RPG characters I can think of, but I still don't feel compelled to dress like him.

If cosplaying is your idea of fun, keep doing it; I don't care. But I definitely won't be paying attention to it just like I won't start paying attention to the many song covers I come across on YouTube or the SF fan literature I come across that is based on my favorite SF works. It all seems so cheap to me; I'd rather stick to the originals.

I just made Yui (Angel Beats), Elisabeth (Sound Horizon), Soji (Peacemaker Kurogane), Himawari (Koko ni Iru yo), Yukina (watashi ni xx shinasai), a demon nurse (Silent Hill), Potato GLaDOS (Portal2), a sentry turret (Portal 2) and now I am working on a secret warcraft cosplay for the yearly games convention... I also plan to try the german cosplay championship again, 2012... As Beatrice from Umineko no naku Koro ni...

Only the prettiest of nerds are allowed to play dress up!

Aillas, in response to your post...cosplay and fanfiction are, at least to me, less derivative and more something of an homage to something you really enjoy. Speaking as a creator as well as a fan, when I do a costume or write a fic, it's like me saying to the creator, "you made something really awesome, and I like it so much that I want to spend hours, days even, living in the world you made up". If something I made up was good enough that someone wanted to cosplay or write about it, I'd be so honored there aren't even words. Homage aside, fan works are also a way for me to bond with other people who like the same things I do. We all work hard to make things to brighten eachother's lives. And sometimes when there's not enough of something you think there should be more of...well, sometimes you just have to make it.

I think there can be a place in a creative person's life for both making fan works, and making OC. They both take a lot of work, and exercise different creative muscles, so to speak. That's my take on it, anyway.

I'd like to, but I don't know how to sew... if I had the time (and a stable home) of which to try, I would definitely try to make a yuuka kazami outfit.

Dear Jesus H. Christ .



Apart from what Memento said; There's also the thing that not necessarily all fan works (of any kind) are "lacking in originality" some of them are pretty good or even with what (i think TV Tropes) they call "Original flavor". Well, to me only Evangelion Re-Take comes to mind, but i can asure that there are some really good fan works of anything over there in the vast world, it's just that they're amid a lot of mediocre works (which frankly it's just the same case with original works) It's more a thing with the artist than anything.

There's some really good fan art. And lots of crappy stuff, of course.
I don't read much fan fiction because I'm really picky about it being in character and fitting into the canon. Like how the new episodes of My Little Pony are destroying everybody's ideas about the origins of Equestria(Including mine, good thing I never got around to writing it.)
A lot of it is just people wanting to write their own stories and cramming in the names of existing characters. That's fine but it's not fan fiction.